Images

Preview image for video: shows a large chunk of lava being pushed by the current in the channel.

Surface flows remained active this morning on the Kahauale‘a 2 flow, but today's observations suggest that the new breakouts at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō may have interrupted the lava supply to the Kahauale‘a 2 flow field. Observations over the next few days will be able to determine if the lava supply to the Kahauale‘a 2 flow has ceased.

View of the sinuous channelized flow that is moving to the northeast. The flow front this morning was about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

The advancing front of the channelized flow northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The front this morning was 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Thermal image of the channelized lava flow. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is at the top of the image. The line of slightly lower temperatures down the center of the channel represents more intact (and cooler) crust, which is less disrupted than the lava near the channel margins.

A sketch by Joseph Nāwahī showing the 1881 lava flow approaching Hilo. (Courtesy of National Park Service, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, HAVO 394, Volcano House Guest Register 1873 to 1885, illustration by Joseph Nāwahī, February 21, 1881.)

 Sara Zeigler (USGS) uses the smartphone data collection app ‘iPlover’ to classify the landscape characteristics in an area immediately surrounding a piping plover nest (here, protected with a black mesh predator exclosure).

Human modifications to beaches, such as sand fencing, sea walls and rock jetties, can alter natural beach processes like overwash. This can affect how much habitat for species like piping plovers is created by storms.

USGS scientists are working to model shorebird habitat availability both today and in the future, given processes like sea-level rise, in an effort to support the efficient management of beaches for both people and nesting shorebirds. This photo shows an area on the Rockaway Peninsula where high quality shorebird habitat has been closed off to beach recreation.

The beach-dependent shorebirds project at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center models current and future habitat availability for nesting shorebirds in an effort to map current and likely future habitat availability on a range of sites along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

June 17, 2014, photo showing smoke produced by the incursion of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow into native forest 7.0 km (4.3 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, which is visible in the background.

The fuming spatter cone near the center of the photo is informally called the "Northeast spatter cone", and is the source of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. Lava reaches the surface at that point and flows directly into a lava tube, which feeds the active flows downslope. View is toward the west.

Spattering was occurring at three locations along the edge of the lava lake during today's overflight. Spattering like this is common, can occur anywhere around the lake margin (though it most often occurs at the southeast edge), and repeatedly starts and stops. View is toward the southeast.

Spattering was occurring at three locations along the edge of the lava lake during today's overflight. Spattering like this is common, can occur anywhere around the lake margin (though it most often occurs at the southeast edge), and repeatedly starts and stops. View is toward the southeast.

While the top of the Northeast spatter cone is often open, revealing a small lava pond (see photo from June 6, 2014), today its top was sealed shut. This has happened several times over the past year, and is likely a temporary situation. View is toward the northwest.

The summit lava lake, its surface composed of solidified plates separated by incandescent seams, was about 42 m (138 ft) below the floor of Halema‘uma‘u today. The mostly destroyed visitor overlook is at the left side of the photo, on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u. View is toward the west.

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Today, its most distant tip, in the foreground of this photo, was burning into the forest 7.0 km (4.3 miles) from its source at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. View is toward the southwest.

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Today, its most distant tip, in the foreground of this photo, was burning into the forest 7.0 km (4.3 miles) from its source at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. View is toward the southwest.

The fuming spatter cone near the center of the photo is informally called the "Northeast spatter cone", and is the source of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. Lava reaches the surface at that point and flows directly into a lava tube, which feeds the active flows downslope. View is toward the west.

While the top of the Northeast spatter cone is often open, revealing a small lava pond (see photo from June 6, 2014), today its top was sealed shut. This has happened several times over the past year, and is likely a temporary situation. View is toward the northwest.